Yes the rumors are true, I am still alive and well. And more importantly, so is the site (believe it not). People have been asking for an update for quite some time but to be honest I didn't have anything new or encouraging to post so there was nothing to update. But these last few days have been a flurry of activity and I finally have an update on the future of the site -- and it's good news.

So what the heck has been going on? Well let's go back around a year when I first put the call out for new contributors to the site, and oh so many of you responded. The plan was to update the site software with something robust enough to handle multiple authors as well as many other custom features I had planned. Once this new system was in place I would be able to manage the site while having multiple authors contribute on a regular basis. Things were going well, I contracted and paid for a company to implement an industrial strength blogging software package custom designed specifically for this site and things were moving along. That was, until it wasn't and things just started to slowly fall apart. Very long story short is that the software package was never delivered and I wasn't able to find a software package which would perform the work I needed.

However that all changed a few days ago when Movable Type 4.01 (the software I use for this site) was released and it was the answer to my prayers and so much more. Everything I have ever wanted for this site to do I can finally do and as of today the site is now running on this platform. And the administration tools are a dream, all the original content was imported into the site seamlessly and it appears that I can finally run this as I have always wanted.

So the plan for the next few days is as follows: First I'm in testing the site and making sure all of the code has transfered correctly. Already I have found a few bugs which needed to be quashed, but the site seems to be running better than ever. Next I have a new design all ready to go which will bring the site up to the "Web 2.0" standard. This design will take a few days to implement, but the design is pretty much complete so hopefully that will go smoothly. There are also plans to tie the extremely active forums directly into the front-end of the site (which will require some custom programming) but this has been well thought out and should be pretty straightforward to implement. And then ... well, the site will finally be ready for the big new reveal!

As for my ability to continue to contribute and do a podcast I plan do just that. How often I will be able to do this I still to be determined as I am as busy as ever. Which brings me back to where I started this post ... the plan to have other people contribute to the site as well. This way the site can continue to thrive and I can contribute as time allows as it would be terrible to let the site simply fade away.

So once again I put out the call, if you are interested in contributing to the site contact me and we'll take it from there. But watch this space soon for some exciting new changes, they'll be coming faster than you think!

I'm already thinking up ideas for some good content to contribute. What will be quality control will anyone be able to post up cause i can see that becoming HW and lots of 12 years olds posting "OMGZ is teh Hal0sss!!!1!" Followed by "STFU that sucks more like Gay-lo. ROFLMFAO!"

I'm already thinking up ideas for some good content to contribute. What will be quality control will anyone be able to post up cause i can see that becoming HW and lots of 12 years olds posting "OMGZ is teh Hal0sss!!!1!" Followed by "STFU that sucks more like Gay-lo. ROFLMFAO!"

Good to hear from Steve himself and know he's all well and good. I'm sure many people here would love to help contribute. I, myself, would do what I can. But that really depends on the kind of things Steve is looking for.

I'm already thinking up ideas for some good content to contribute. What will be quality control will anyone be able to post up cause i can see that becoming HW and lots of 12 years olds posting "OMGZ is teh Hal0sss!!!1!" Followed by "STFU that sucks more like Gay-lo. ROFLMFAO!"

I've never posted like that, unless maybe I was being sarcastic about someone else who did it. Also, since we have moving text, can we have flashing text? (EG. Text that dissappears and reappears, which you could control speed like you control text size)

I'm happy for this...so will Gaming Steve become a more relevant website now that there will be updates and stuff? Maybe head in the more blog like direction of a Kotaku or Joystiq, since it doesn't look like this'll be much of a podcast hub in the near future...

So what's Steve been doing anyways? Kids, working on his game, fantasy football?

I'm already thinking up ideas for some good content to contribute. What will be quality control will anyone be able to post up cause i can see that becoming HW and lots of 12 years olds posting "OMGZ is teh Hal0sss!!!1!" Followed by "STFU that sucks more like Gay-lo. ROFLMFAO!"

Give me one example of someone here saying something like that without being sarcastic, regardless of age, and I'll believe you.

I'm already thinking up ideas for some good content to contribute. What will be quality control will anyone be able to post up cause i can see that becoming HW and lots of 12 years olds posting "OMGZ is teh Hal0sss!!!1!" Followed by "STFU that sucks more like Gay-lo. ROFLMFAO!"

Give me one example of someone here saying something like that without being sarcastic, regardless of age, and I'll believe you.

I'm already thinking up ideas for some good content to contribute. What will be quality control will anyone be able to post up cause i can see that becoming HW and lots of 12 years olds posting "OMGZ is teh Hal0sss!!!1!" Followed by "STFU that sucks more like Gay-lo. ROFLMFAO!"

Give me one example of someone here saying something like that without being sarcastic, regardless of age, and I'll believe you.

This is the site for intelligent gaming discussion. It doesn't represent the whole gaming population. Go to GameFAQs, or someplace like that, and you'll see the difference (I'm sure other people can attest to that).

I'm already thinking up ideas for some good content to contribute. What will be quality control will anyone be able to post up cause i can see that becoming HW and lots of 12 years olds posting "OMGZ is teh Hal0sss!!!1!" Followed by "STFU that sucks more like Gay-lo. ROFLMFAO!"

Give me one example of someone here saying something like that without being sarcastic, regardless of age, and I'll believe you.

This is the site for intelligent gaming discussion. It doesn't represent the whole gaming population. Go to GameFAQs, or someplace like that, and you'll see the difference (I'm sure other people can attest to that).

Yeah! GameFAQs, I saw a Spore forum, and the FIRST PERSON TO POST went on and on about how awful it was going to be and how he hated it, and how if you bought Spore, he'd come to your house and kill you, and he never mentioned why he disliked Spore.

Not that i don't think it doesn't look nice, the banner seems a little obtrusive to me. I had gotten used to it not being there.

Though, I am also the kind of person who closed my control panel thingy at the top to see more boards on screen at once. Maybe we could get choices of different types of banners we get to see at the top as part of our individual forum appearance preferences?

There was always supposed to be a banner there, I just never got around to putting it in. The new design will have a banner in it, the size might change but the banner (and site navigation) is coming back.

Hum, I thought people would be interested in seeing this ... I guess not. I'll try to take it down a bit later.

I will probably keep one theme very light ... I might even add new ones to let people choose from. It's pretty easy to add themes now with the updated SMF interface, so I'll take a look at their library and see if anything looks good.

A very interesting story has been zipping across the Internets today concerning video game "journalism" and review scores. According to the rumor, Jeff Gerstmann, a very popular and well known editor at Gamespot, was fired because he gave the game Kane and Lynch a score of 6.0. Eidos, which just happened to have an enormous marketing campaign plastered all over the Gamespot site right now, was not too pleased with his review and demanded the score to be changed.

But why would Eidos want the score changed so badly? Well it seems that Cnet, the owner of Gamespot, promised a certain "type" of score in exchange for their marketing dollars and that "understanding" didn't come through. Of course, Cnet didn't exactly promise a specific score, but rather a "positive tone" to the review. Gerstmann refused to change his score/review so he was fired. No official word has been made at Gamespot, and no word from Gerstmann so this is all hearsay and speculation at this point, but Gerstmann has not been on the site or in his regular Gamespot segments for several days now.

Could this rumor be true? Who knows ... but it should be pointed out that Gamespot has changed scores in the past. Last year Gamespot reviewed Company of Heroes and gave it an 8.9, but a few days later changed their score to a 9.0 and gave the game an "Editors' Choice" award (the official word is that they changed the score because of an SLI issue that was fixed, but that seems a bit too convenient).

But the real question is this, do gaming publications trade good reviews for exclusive access, marketing dollars, behind-the-scene interviews? Could the influx in thousands of dollars in ad revenue in any way shape and form affect the so-called "game reviews" that you read? I mean, what are the chances that upsetting one of the few big-game publishers in the industry could possibly hurt your chances at future access to their games and content?

(Please note, the previous paragraph should be read with a tone of heavy sarcasm to get the full effect. Thank you.)

All I have to say is this -- Gamespot Perfect Dark Zero review ... final score, 9.0 and an Editors' Choice award during the launch of the Xbox 360 and an enormous Microsoft marketing campaign at Gamespot. Amazing coincidence ... or was Perfect Dark Zero, the launch title for the Xbox 360, just that good of a game. You decide.

Oh yes, bonus fun at Penny Arcade with their take on the rumor.

Front page quoted in case it seems to be not working for anyone else.

Also, the tone of this post really made me miss Steve's straight forward attitude from the podcasts.

I also posted this in the comments section on the front page, but it bears repeating.Gamespot members are voting with their feet and panning Kane and Lynch simply to flip gamespot and Eidos the bird: http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/kanelynchdeadmen/players.html?tag=readerreviews%3Balluser

Holy hell. Look at all those player reviewers giving it a 1/10 over the event. That's insane and wont be good for the game. A pity, all the work put into a game and it's effectively ruined by corrupt companies and bored teenagers. But then again, I s'pose Eidos didn't help any.

Holy hell, Steve. Three updates in three days. Making up for lost time now.

Anyhow, those curious about the controversial interview but too lazy to go look it up:

Quote

The GoodInteresting multiplayer modeYou'll see a variety of different scenery as you play.

The BadArtificial intelligence is quite lacking.Weapons don't feel rightCharacters and storyline do everything in their power to drive you away from the gameNo online co-op mode.

Io Interactive is best known for its stealth-focused Hitman series, but there's nothing quiet and sneaky about its latest release, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. This time around, the developer put together a crime-themed shooter that starts out with a couple of simple, heist-like objectives and then rapidly spins out of control until, without much warning, you're gunning down soldiers in the middle of a foreign revolution. While the journey sounds interesting at first, and has a few bright points, it's weighed down by bad storytelling, a real lack of character development, and a host of gameplay-related issues. The end result is a game that squanders much of its potential and just doesn't come together as well as it probably should have.

Kane and Lynch don't get along--not in an especially interesting way either.The story mode opens with you in the role of Kane, a death row inmate on his way to his execution, apparently convicted of being a very savage criminal as part of a notorious gang called The7. You're on your last ride with a quirky guy named Lynch who tells you to cover your head. After an explosion, you're both busted out and on the run. That might sound great, but it's a fate worse than death. The surviving members of The7 have busted you out to force you to recover something they think you stole from them. They consider you a traitor and will kill Kane's family if he doesn't comply. Lynch is sent along for the ride to watch over Kane and report in if anything weird happens. Circumstances change over time and the back half plays out like a revenge tale, but it's a revenge tale where you don't actually care if anyone actually gets their revenge. Every single person you play as or encounter is despicable and wholly abrasive; thus, it'll probably be tough for you to find anyone to latch onto and care about, even if you typically go for this sort of crime drama on TV or in movies. You can play through this story alone or with a friend in co-op mode, though this mode is only available locally and takes place on a vertically split screen that makes it difficult to follow the action, even on a widescreen TV.

The core gameplay in Kane & Lynch is your standard third-person shooter with cover elements and a light dusting of squad tactics. You can fire from the hip, but it's somewhat more accurate to fire while aiming. Unfortunately, even when you're aiming, hitting your targets is more difficult than it should be because your automatic fire has a wide spread on it. Kane is supposedly a badass arch-criminal; he should be able to hit his targets with short, controlled bursts. You're able to get behind cover and either blindfire or pop out for aimed shots, but there's no easy way to stick to walls. You don't press a button or anything; instead you sort of get up against a wall and turn sideways. Then after jiggling the controls back and forth a bit, you'll eventually snap into place to get behind cover. It's such a pain that you'll rarely want to use it, and it seems like you're always snapping into cover behind something at the most inopportune times, making the game quite frustrating. There's no health meter, but if you go down, you don't die immediately either. You can be revived by one of your teammates with an adrenaline shot. If you get that shot too frequently, you'll overdose and die. If your teammates don't reach you in time, you'll die too. Also, if one of the guys on your crew gets dropped, you have to make sure he gets revived. If he dies, the game ends. Between your poor accuracy, the enemy's sharp accuracy, and the boneheaded AI from your squadmates, this all adds up to you keeping your squad on a very short leash.

When you've got a team with you, you can order team members around individually or order the team all at once by telling it to regroup to your location, move to a specific spot, or attack specific targets. Telling team members to move to locations is the most effective move because you can keep them close and revive them when they get shot down. Sending them after targets results in your squad running around aimlessly and trying to get too close to targets. That leads to them getting dropped in the line of fire, where you probably won't be able to rescue them. So whether you're doing the shooting yourself or hanging back and letting your men do the dirty work, the game is a real disappointment, especially when you consider how well this same sort of stuff worked in the developer's previous squad-based game, Freedom Fighters.

There's only one multiplayer mode in Kane & Lynch, and it's a great idea. Unfortunately, the idea doesn't translate into a great or long-lasting experience. It's called Fragile Alliance and puts up to eight players in one team of criminals. Then, it sets the team off to steal money, cocaine, and jewels from various locations seen in the single-player game. So you might start out in front of a bank, run in, collect a bunch of cash, and then escape from in a van out back. The catch is the way the money is split up among teammates. If you all work together, the money is split evenly. But at any point, a player can go rogue and gun down one of his teammates. This brands you a traitor; thus, any money you collect and escape with is yours to keep. Of course, this also means that other players who are still part of the team will try to waste you before you escape with their hard-stolen loot. So every round is a tentative affair where you always expect the worst--you're just never sure when someone's going to finally turn on you. When you die, whether it's from the AI that opposes you or another player, you respawn on the other side of the heist. Now you need to stop the heist by eliminating the other players and you earn money by collecting it before the criminals collect.

It's a bummer that the multiplayer is mucked up by a few different things. First, you're still playing Kane & Lynch, so all of the inaccurate firing issues and poor cover tactics from the single-player still apply. But another problem is that you can see the names of the other players over their heads from a distance and through walls, even if they're on the other side. While you can run while crouched to make your name disappear, it's pretty weak that you can see the names of the police team members as they head your way. There's no element of surprise. Also, there are only a handful of different scenarios for this, and they play out the same way every single time. The security guards are always in the same positions in the bank and the cops are always waiting for you right outside, so it gets old fast.

While it might seem like a basic heist game, Kane & Lynch does a good job of moving the action around, and you'll see a variety of different environments and situations, ranging from banks, to prison breaks, to full-scale conflicts in the middle of illicit poppy fields. It also has some good-looking player models, with Kane and Lynch both looking appropriate as over-the-hill criminals. And even though their faces don't animate much in-game, they still look good. Most of the animation isn't so hot, though, and you'll see a few ugly textures here and there too. Some of it looks a bit unfinished, like the way you see guys go through the motion of hitting you with an adrenaline shot, but their hands are actually empty.

The multiplayer mode is a really cool idea that leaves you wondering who's going to turn traitor on you, but it isn't strong enough to make you forget the game's other problems.The soundtrack is probably the best part of the whole game, delivering some tense music when the game calls for it. There's a lot of voice acting in the game. The voices are appropriate for the characters, but the dialogue is hokey and filled with gratuitous cursing. The good ol' F word is certainly appropriate, given the nature of what these guys are doing, but when it's every third word out of every character's mouth, it comes across as a crutch that drags down the rest of the game a bit. Lynch frequently responds to your squad-orders by just shouting "F*** you!" Things like that just make the game feel purposely abrasive, and not in a "gritty" or "cool" sort of way.

The game is available on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as of this writing, and the differences between the two versions are minimal. Both games have occasional frame rate issues and the control issues with finding cover and hitting targets are noticeable in both. The only real difference is that the PlayStation 3 version doesn't seem to have voice chat support. The multiplayer mode only really clicks when you can talk things out with other players and try to convince them that you're not going to turn traitor--only to turn traitor on them and then laugh about it. Without that, the whole experience feels a little dry. The Xbox 360 version also has the standard set of 1,000 achievement points, a few of which reward you for specific moments in co-op, like having the player controlling Lynch put a few cops out of their misery, rather than leaving them to writhe on the ground.

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is a premise with promise, and if you've been waiting patiently for a game to really dive into the whole "crew-based heist tale" concept, you might be able to look past some of the story flaws. But when you consider the nearly ridiculous number of extremely high-quality shooters available recently, there's not much room for something like Kane & Lynch, even taking into account the somewhat unique nature of its story. That said, the multiplayer is a smart idea that's worth seeing, even if playing it makes you wish that it was used in another, better game.

Even more news on the front page. I might actually pick up one of these figures, if it actually looks good.

I also submitted it to digg because, somehow, Steve was able to get the pictures that are currently being obscured by the banner and his is the best writeup that exists thus far. Feel free to digg the story here (http://www.digg.com/pc_games/Convert_your_WoW_character_to_a_3D_Model).

It looks good, but it also looks like its going to be wringing money out of people left right and centre with half-arsed and overpriced Knights of the Nine style not-quite-expansions. But having a virtual game board and a decent mapmaker would make DMing a helluva lot easier.

Actually that was to show what the "next" game was supposed to look like. I was going to use the WOW-related South Park image, but I just used it in a prior post and I thought it this image was funnier.

The image is actually a homage to those Japanese animated cartoons and what the guys from South Park would look like if they were drawn in that style.

Yes, it is! But I believe his tastes are fairly similar to mine, but yet different enough so that you will always get a consistent "voice" for the site. Plus it's always fun to have a "British" point of view from the world of gaming.

He will probably be on the site. How much he posts I am unsure as that is up to him. But leave your comments and welcome him!

Huh. To think I thought about doing some Goombas to add to the icon list then thought "Nah, it's not an item". Having said that, neither is a metroid... ah, my contradictory train of thought, where did you go so wrong? =|

Competetiveness: How well the game measures against others of its genre. 0- Derivative, unimaginative 5- A solid addition to the genre, has most everything that came before, and does them well 9- Groundbreaking, redefines the genre10-Created a new genre, if a game does, all other values are zero, as 10000 is the highest score.

Story : The Quality of the Story.0- pretentious piss, derivative dung, unimaginative urine; or just not existing.5- Slightly cliche, but otherwise solid, entertaining, and not distracting9- Would make great authors of history jealous. Comparable to Shakespeare if your into that.

Interface : The smoothness and quality of control for the player.0- Barely got needed info, cluttered, Graphics not communicating correct or useful information.5- Necessary Info clear, needed info only displayed when needed, Graphics represent world well.9- Info is at your finger tips, highly efficient, and graphics both clear and effective.

Benchmarks:

Half-Life 8866/10000Half-Life2 8989/10000Tabula Rasa 7665/10000X3: Reunion 5542/10000Oblivion 7766/10000Mount&Blade 8857/10000Morrowind 8657/10000Sim City 10000/10000Rogue 10000/10000Golden Dolphin 12/10000Civilization 8805/10000Like that scaling system? (Which I had a hand in developing. :P) Basically each aspect is weighted a little more, with Competetiveness (a measurement of how well it stacks up to other games of its genre) in the "thousand's" range; counting more than its interface quality, which is in the "one's" range.

I like the idea of a school grade rating like A, B, C, D, and F. Because once a score goes under a 6, 60 or 600 it might as well have a 'don't buy me sticker' on it. Maybe have +'s but no -'s. Boo -'s.

I say toss all these scores and grades and ratings altogether.What's more important to me is an interesting, well-written, critical article that goes over each area that composes the game. Things like story, character development, and emotional impact.And then go over more technical things like gameplay, audio, and graphics.Pros and cons are fun, but not that important.

I'm more into reading reviews of games I've already played, however. So I tend to dislike the ones that are simply attempting to sell the game to me, or warn me away from it. I decide that entirely on my own, usually by locating player-made gameplay videos.I don't merely want to hear someone else justify my purchase of a game.It's more about understanding why the game and its many bits and pieces are either valuable or worthless, to the game itself, and to others in the genre.

I realize everyone enjoys writing the way they do, and by all means, continue.Thems just a few things that make a review interesting to me, as a reader.All for your information.

Of course there is a whole bunch of other stuff in my head that makes me decide a review is good, but I won't bother getting into all that. I'm sure I've blathered on enough for now. :P

Hello Gaming steve forum members. I thought I should introduce myself here, being that your discussing the front page postings. Hope to learn more about all your gaming interests as you learn about mine.

For a second their I thought I wrote that post drunk or something. Forgot about that gizoogle thing.

Also, I've been trying out more of those games. Tactics 100 is a great browser based turnbased tactics strategy game, with multiplayer. All of Battlezoo's games (makers of Echoes) are really worth trying. Duotris is a great puzzle idea, Mono is beautiful to look at, in fact all of their games are really slickly designed, definetly check them out. All of Battlezoo's games also work really well with an Xbox 360 controller. Claustrophere would have benifitted from a stationary targeting reticle, but it's still pretty cool. Protoganda is a classic Raiden or Gradius shooter with a really intersting style going for it.

I've been trying to push Minerva on this forum for over a year now... never really got any feedback from people. It's the best mod out there though, I'd venture far enough to say that it is better than Half-Life 2 even, it's that good. You will love it.

I was starting to wonder that, but I'm sure Steve has a perfectly good reason even if he decides not to disclose the specifics of it. We'll probably get a podcast or at least an update when SSB:B is released...

Sorry for lack of updates on my end guys, I've been away at home celebrating my nan's 60th birthday, and thus haven't had much time to write. Hopefully tomorrow I can write my review of Professor Layton and the Curious Village on the DS and get that published, as well as cover any news stories that may crop up. Aside from that, does anyone have any recommendations of things they want me to look at? My rental copy of Burnout Paradise will arrive on Wednesday so I can do something on that, but I'm not sure if that's all old news these days. If anyone has any ideas for editorials or things they would like me to investigate or look into, I will take your ideas on board, alongside some other things I already have planned. Just don't expect any Smash Bros coverage from me for a while, I live in PAL land and I'm still waiting for the Wii Freeloader to be tested before I order it and a US copy of Smash.

I would do, but my personal funds are looking quite strained recently, and I plan on purchasing Bully (360), Vegas 2, Mario Kart Wii, and GTA IV in the space of two months, so to waste money on an unproven product would be dangerous.

Yeah honestly, could you guys maybe do something about posting so many stories on the same day? Does Steve have to actually post them or do you all happen to do this by accident? It's really annoying and I just end up ignoring some of them.

Steve was very busy for a while, then managed to get a couple posts we had sent in on the site, and know he seems very busy again. I've put up what posts I've sent to him on my blog in the interim. I imagine he'll be back soon.

Not too much you have to worry about when it comes to Mario Kart spoilers just characters and tracks which too me is a selling point fo the game. It's not like they are giving away Snap Killed Dumbledore, still if you want to find out unlockables and stuff for your self becareful.

Still good write up and may actually make me get them game in the end I have been wondering if it is worth getting seeing the DS version is so good I wasn't sure if this would offer anything new still seems worth the price of admission.

I noticed and a quick 2 cents I'll join the if you don't show your games at e3 you don't get to enter side of the fence. If developers don't like not being in the comp then all they have to do is set up a booth at e3.

Damn...that is seriously cool! But given how much I play DnD, I dunno if I actually wanna pay for that. Then again, the reason I play DnD so little is because almost no one in my area even knows what it is, those that do ridicule it.

I'm not a fan. If we want to follow you on twitter, we'll click the twitter link, we don't need the huge block there that forces us to scroll down for the forum.

The purpose for that is so people can read updates who don't follow twitter. Many people still read the front page. If you want to go directly to the forum, you can bookmark the forum url. That's how I usually do it.

I'm not a fan. If we want to follow you on twitter, we'll click the twitter link, we don't need the huge block there that forces us to scroll down for the forum.

The purpose for that is so people can read updates who don't follow twitter. Many people still read the front page. If you want to go directly to the forum, you can bookmark the forum url. That's how I usually do it.

How does that make any sense? If I'm not following him on twitter, it's because I don't want to follow him on twitter. Twitter is a largely useless fad.

It makes sense because if you want gaming updates or information from Steve then he is doing it through twitter now. If you don't use twitter, you can read it on the front page. If you don't want to read those updates then change your opening link and bypass it.

I still maintain that if we wanted to follow him on twitter, we would, you know, follow him on twitter. I don't even care that it's on the front page, I care where it is on the front page. It should be in a news post or on the right hand side of the page or below the forum link. Forcing us to either scroll down and deal with it or change our opening link sucks. You can argue that I'm being an ******* right now, but you really can't argue that it's not in a bad spot. Whatever, I guess.

I think Sub's point is that he likes to go through the front page so that he can see if there are any updates and that Twitter is made it slightly more time consuming to get through. It's only an extra second or two though.